The Joy of Volunteering

Volunteering is a most rewarding and fulfilling experience; as a longtime volunteer I would wholeheartedly recommend you to find an opportunity in your community and to become involved.  

There are a million reasons why any one of us should volunteer:

·      to feel needed

·      to share a skill

·      to get to know your community

·      to demonstrate commitment to a cause

·      to gain leadership skills

·      to do your civic duty

·      satisfaction from accomplishment

·      to donate your professional skills

·      because there is no one else to do it

·      to have an impact

·      to learn something new

·      to be challenged

·      to help someone

·      to do something different from your job

·      to keep skills alive

·      to have an excuse to do what you love

·      to assure progress

·      to be part of a team

The list can go on but through volunteering you can help those in-need, connect with like-minded individuals, and feel engaged in your community. Volunteering takes time and commitment but you receive endless rewards and benefits. Volunteering in your community allows you to learn more about the different issues facing your community as well as helping in making your community a better place for others and yourself. As many volunteers will tell you, volunteering is a most unselfish and gratifying act.       

In the past year, I have helped with meal preparations at a food kitchen, taught budgeting skills and money management to middle school students, transcribed interviews with Reston residents from 1960s, and researched and drafted grants. I am grateful to have met some of the clients who benefitted from the meals I prepared and to have seen the results of my work. Working with a group of volunteers to teach eighth graders about money management and hearing their questions about how to balance wants versus needs was at times challenging but it was comforting to be in a group and to help each other. Transcribing interviews for a documentary on Reston, I listened to stories of African Americans interested in purchasing homes in Reston during the 1960s and learned about the hardships they faced, from finding properties willing to sell to banks willing to loan them the funds. Each one of these opportunities has helped me learned more about others and about myself.

There are myriad organizations with differing needs, time requirements, and missions all looking for dedicated individuals who can give a few hours, weekly, monthly or for a special short-term project. Finding a meaningful and flexible volunteering opportunity in our community is very straightforward and there are many good sites, which provide pertinent data about the organizations, descriptions of the volunteer opportunity and contact information to connect with the agency. A great first place to start is Volunteer Fairfax http://www.volunteerfairfax.org/. Their website offers searches for opportunity by organization, location, and key words. The search options are uncomplicated and the selection is excessive.

In our ever growing community the need is always present. So what are you waiting for…